Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lew Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: How is this "pattern" called? Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 11:34:27 -0700 Organization: albasani.net Lines: 39 Message-ID: References: <54jdr7164mceis033e8f7amqb3qhjdfv9r@4ax.com> <4fb8590f$0$295$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: news.albasani.net Blic7j3HgosIsfen1R11krOcA6UbwGlY4X6golP9PvWGSyfw2rX0Nr3aT6Yq718qcCPfNjbmyLo3JuYvpKUT3sHnix6eAkYmr6/dWtcJCtWP43GTnqIL30gn+M0x8DaC NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 18:34:21 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: news.albasani.net; logging-data="7KEqrTTKhG7kl6jO/lgF7usBpEr0cQ/jNk7dXmGME/c/OwAc9tPnDd9Jrw7eSeoJ/GJRGPj5wHearpk7Lf8rFUHc6S4pCyX+f/AY3t+7CR6TAWqSYQWxpRK+TjB44LpS"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@albasani.net" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20120430 Thunderbird/12.0.1 In-Reply-To: <4fb8590f$0$295$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Cancel-Lock: sha1:C7+KE4rYmQjKaPsu8lL4sDpkwxU= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:14677 Arne Vajhøj wrote: > Gene Wirchenko wrote: >> With the amount of noise over patterns though, you would think >> that many people need the patterns. For me, supporting an in-house >> application, there is no or little need. > > Or you have not realized the need. Or both of you are looking at it from the wrong perspective. I would bet that both of you use "patterns" in the larger, non-buzzwordy sense, that is, you recognize the shape of structures in your model and can exploit common idioms for common shapes. Both of you appear to be competent programmers from what this newsgroup shows, and programmers become competent only if they have that skill. The argument is over "patterns" in the GoF sense, a highly bureaucratized, overly-verbose and religiously canonical set of labels and formats to describe them. But even amidst all the sturm und drang over the latter kind of patterns, they provide value in a common terminology and informal use. So when we discuss Visitor or Singleton, we all know what we mean. ("We" being competent programmers. One occasionally sees posters here who are less knowledgeable.) I favor having a library of common pattern labels to facilitate both communication and program design. No one should think that the list in GoF-land is exhaustive, and certainly not mandatory. Just because you haven't used one of the patterns from the Official List doesn't mean you don't need patterns, or don't use them. The point of the Official List is to identify some (only some!) of the most common patterns and get us used to thinking in terms of patterns, not to be set upon an altar and have thurifers waved at them. -- Lew Honi soit qui mal y pense. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg